cuba

What’s it like to be an entrepreneur in a place that has little to no Internet access? Today at TechCrunch’s Disrupt NY, we got the perspective of a trio of Cuban entrepreneurs to learn about the challenges they face in building businesses as the country gradually opens up to the outside world. Read More

Cubazon. Kewelta. Knales. These aren’t house hold names in the US but they’re at the vanguard of entrepreneurship in Cuba and they’ll be joining us on stage at Disrupt New York.
We’ll be talking with Bernardo Romero Gonzalez, CEO & founder of Cubazon, an online store for the Cuban diaspora that lets them send products to their relatives back home. He earned his MBA… Read More

What do you call an innovative person who builds a product out of nothing and launches something that will change people’s lives? Everywhere besides Cuba, you’d call this person an entrepreneur. You’d never expect in the land of communism, censorship and classic cars that you’d find a hotbed of entrepreneurship. Technically, it doesn’t exist. But in my eyes… Read More

President Obama’s bold new course on Cuban policy is paving the way for emerging tech to blossom in the country. A new entrepreneurial competition, 10x10KCuba, hopes to uncover Cuba’s best and brightest tech minds with an offer of mentorship and potential financing. Read More

Airbnb will now let travelers from outside the U.S. to book properties in Cuba after receiving authorization from the U.S. government, reports the Associated Press. Previously, only Americans were allowed to reserve the site’s Cuban listings. They will open to international users on April 2. Read More

A month ago, payments company Stripe launched Atlas, a toolkit for startups to incorporate in the U.S. and lay the groundwork for growing their businesses online. Aimed largely at small enterprises outside of the U.S., Atlas is making a notable addition to the roster of countries covered under the program: from today, it will begin to accept Atlas applicants from Cuba, so that… Read More

You see them everywhere. Throngs of young and old, men and women, heads down on their smartphones, fingers rapid fire, mouths curling into smiles as they soak up the joy of an Internet connection. Why are all these people clogging the sidewalks instead of logging in at home? This is Cuba, and in Cuba, you can’t log in at home. Read More

One of the stranger things that Y Combinator has supported — among the many more interesting things they’ve started to back like prosthetic legs, macrobiotic research and Uber-for-marijuana startups — is a non-profit that built an entire political party in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
DemocracyOS is a software platform that allows regular voters to debate and forward policy ideas. Read More

Latest Crunch Report

This week’s tech news (2/7-2/13) included dog-like robots, a high tech cruise ship, Netflix’s launch in Cuba and Samsung’s eavesdropping TV. These are the stories to catch you up on the world of tech. Read More

The U.S. and Cuba are easing their diplomatic relations, the White House is announcing today, marking a relaxation of a relationship that has remained tense since the Cold War. Part of that easing will include “new efforts to increase Cubans’ access to communications and their ability to communicate freely,” according to information shared by the White House about the scope… Read More

Looks like President Obama wants to see some change in our Cuba policy, and not merely change affecting only Cuban-Americans and their relationship with the country. American telecommunication companies will now be allowed to, among other things, establish satellite links between the two countries and—Opie and Anthony may soon be heard in Havana! Read More

Cuba is trying to eliminate its dependency on Microsoft Windows by launching and promoting a homegrown version of Linux called Nova. Government officials say they want to ween as many of the country’s computers off Windows just in case the operating system has hidden hooks into the CIA, NSA, etc. Can’t have that, now can they? Linux, free and open source, also gels with the… Read More

Cuba is set to get broadband internet access in the year 2010 and you can sure as hell bet that CrunchGear will more than happy to provide Cubans everywhere with half-cocked news and reviews that may or may not pertain to the world of technology.
Apparently, some documents have been leaked (site is currently down, unfortunately) detailing an undersea cable to be stretched between Cuba and… Read More

For the first time ever, Cuban citizens can purchase personal computers. There’s only one model available and it’s priced too high for most Cubans (and it’d seem like a downright rip-off to most Americans), but this is a good start nonetheless.
The computer is a QTECH PC and costs just under $800. It’s got a Celeron processor, 80GB hard drive, 512MB of RAM, Windows XP… Read More

How fun does Cuba look? I’d visit it in a second.
Cubans can now buy cellphones! That means they’re well on their way to becoming a member of the international community of nations, right? Baby steps.
Yup, starting today, everyday Cubans can purchase cellphones from the state-owned wireless provider. The cellphones are said to be restriction-free, as they’re able to make… Read More